Oil and gas, gold, copper, and fixed-price commodities such as coal have all enjoyed rallies of late, but trading activity was a mixed bag on U.S. markets over the report period Sept. 20-26, with gold companies taking a back seat to copper producers and diversified miners. Overall, resource companies managed to outshine retail stocks, which were clobbered by falling consumer confidence and a drop in new home sales.
Investor uncertainty took its toll on the broad-based S&P 500 Index, which shed about 16 points to close at 1,215.63 over the trading session.
Copper giant Phelps Dodge was the biggest value-gainer over the period, up US$8.29 to US$124.90, in part because copper will be important to the rebuilding effort taking place in America’s storm-battered Gulf states. Copper is a building block of China’s industrial boom too, which benefits producers such as Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, operator of the huge Grasberg copper-gold mine in nearby Indonesia. Freeport gained US$2.60 to close at US$47.05.
Southern Peru Copper enjoyed a similar boost, up US$2.58 to US$53.09.
Diversified miner Rio Tinto also posted an impressive gain, up US$7.33 to US$162.08 over the session.
The most active trader once again was aluminum producer Alcoa. The company’s shares lost ground again, this time shedding US$2.16 to close at US$24.20.
Gold producers posted generally modest gains after last week’s euphoric price rally. Newmont Mining was the most active gold stock this session, as the unhedged company is highly leveraged to the gold price and a favourite of gold bugs. The company’s shares gained US57 to US$46.68.
Crystallex International took a big hit, down US$1.07 to US$1.65, after Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez vowed to nationalize the nation’s gold-mining industry.
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